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| 28 Feb 2009 05:15:11 pm |
 AWEA's Denise Bode Talks Renewables on CNN |
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| AWEA CEO Denise Bode will appear on CNN today, Saturday, at 4PM ET. She will be part of a panel discussing various aspects of President Obama's agenda. The CNN interview tops off a busy media week for AWEA, starting Monday with a high-level energy and transmission summit convened by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and T. Boone Pickens. Denise was one of the participants and speakers, along with Speaker Nancy Pelosi, President Bill Clinton, Vice President Gore, and others. The full Webcam presentation is now available. |
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Category : AWEA News
| Posted By : Chris Madison |
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| 27 Feb 2009 11:28:20 pm |
| (Say) It ain't So, Joe |
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| At a House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee hearing yesterday on a proposed national renewable electricity standard (RES), Rep. Joe Barton, R-TX, turned the tables on the pro-renewable crowd by arguing that wind energy contributes to global warming, rather than reducing it. Barton cited a Carnegie Mellon University study that concluded that massing wind turbines together in a large area would create global warming because it would heat up the atmosphere. |
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Category : AWEA News
| Posted By : Chris Madison |
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| 27 Feb 2009 02:07:58 pm |
| It's Official: Wind Tech Gets Respect from Labor Dept. |
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| Wind Technicians will now be a unique category for collecting data on occupations in the U.S. The Bureau of Labor Statistics will now track specific national and state wage and employment information on wind technicians. Previously, wind technicians were lumped into a broader category of "Installation, Maintenance and Repair Workers, All Other” category. |
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Category : AWEA News
| Posted By : Chris Madison |
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| 26 Feb 2009 01:33:22 am |
| More Notes from AWEA’s Siting Workshop—Day Two |
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SEATTLE--Wind is on the radar screen these days. Not necessarily in a good sense. The opening segment today at AWEA’s Project Siting Workshop here centered on the fact that on radar screens, wind farms masquerade as thunderstorms. This is disconcerting not only to weather forecasters, but also to those who depend on radar to keep track of commercial aircraft (the Federal Aviation Agency, FAA), and keep an eye out for the bad guys (the Department of Defense, DOD).
Luckily, for most problems, there are solutions, and after representatives of NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which monitors weather), the FAA and DOD explained the technical aspects of the issue, the session moderator, Stu Webster, Manager of permitting for Clipper Windpower, explained efforts underway in the industry through AWEA to come together with the government agencies to “mitigate” the impact. Webster also noted that the U.S. effort is modeled after successful cooperation among all parties involved in Great Britain.
Thousands of people live near wind farms without complaints. But some residents have complained, and since sound is often regulated at a local level, community acceptance is essential before a wind farm is developed. Panelist Mark Bastasch, of CH2M Hill, noted that the industry has to “provide clarity once and for all” on the sound question. That means, among other things, assembling an advisory panel to determine whether more research is needed. He also stated that developers should make sure that the community understands beforehand that “turbines can be heard.”
One of the final speakers, Robert Kahn, of Robert D. Kahn & Co., noted that he doesn’t “do” Power Point presentations, then proceeded to deliver perfect verbal bullet points on getting wind projects approved:
--You have to get the science right. He who has the best data wins.
--You have to send in lawyers and (hired) guns and money.
--You must reach accommodation with the (government) agencies. And you need to be prepared to mitigate where appropriate.
--If you get those steps right, your chances for success are vastly improved. |
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Category : AWEA News
| Posted By : Chris Madison |
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| 25 Feb 2009 01:09:54 am |
| Notes from AWEA's Project Siting Workshop |
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Neither national economic woes nor Seattle's legendary moisture dampened turnout at this year's AWEA Project Siting Workshop--more than 380 are attending, slightly higher than last year's turnout. The traffic at the exhibit booths is reported to be heavy and very engaged, and the networking during coffee breaks has been noisy and intense.
The workshop agenda reflects the Northwest location and the prominence of renewables in the region; it includes discussion of specific siting challenges and opportunities in all of the key Northwest states. The workshop's program chair, Suzanne Leta Liou, senior policy advocate at the Renewable Northwest Project, based in Portland, Ore., and very active throughout the region, continues the Northwest theme.
Finally, there are the animals--bats, ground squirrels, sage grouse, among others, all impacted by wind farms to some degree. Edward Arnett, co-director of programs at Bat Conservation International, gave a riveting status report on the research now underway to determine whether there are effective ways to reduce bat mortality at wind farms. The study, now undergoing peer review, will be released later in the year.
Other human speakers highlighted the importance of monitoring and measuring the impact of wind farms on ground squirrel habitats during that part of the year that they are above ground; sage grouse warranted their own session at the workshop.
The point of all the sessions is to help those attending the workshop maneuver carefully through the ever-complex siting landscape as wind energy continues to grow.
As Chairwoman Leta Liou put it, "We are hoping to present a sense of the broad scope of regulatory, permitting and community challenges to siting wind projects, in the Northwest in particular. One thing that attendees will hear consistently is the critical importance of engaging with stakeholders—state agencies, permitting authorities, landowners, and others--early and often, and the need to continue that engagement after construction. " |
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Category : AWEA News
| Posted By : Chris Madison |
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